Glanalaw - delighting in pure song

1. Never, ever, ever  put two and a half Scotch Bonnet peppers into a single moderately-sized pot of bean soup.  They are several times as hot as jalapeño peppers. 2.  Rice and couscous are your friends in the event that you do  overdose on hot peppers.  Cornbread doesn't hurt, either. 3.  Coaching someone else through the writing of a research paper is much more difficult than writing it yourself. 4.  If you plan to piece an entire queen-sized quilt top by hand, don't lose your thimble. 5.  About 4 o'clock this afternoon I was all set to write a mean, snarky, rant-y blog post. 6.  One glorious sunset can do away with the need to write a mean, snarky, rant-y blog post.  God knows what he is doing :-) 7.  I may still write that rant.  But I'll do my best not to be mean and snarky!

I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that one of the assignments for my January class was to clean and attribute (identify) an original coin from the late Roman empire.  Well, I finished the project last Thursday and gave my presentation in class, so I thought I'd post about it here!  I'll give the paper I turned in and then some other notes of my own :) This is before much cleaning had happened.  It wasn't that clear in person (and it has NEVER been that colour) but the flash helped! Attribution of the coin: Constantine I (the Great; AD 307-337); AD 317-321; AE-3; 18mm. OBV : Laureate, mantled bust left, holding mappa and sceptre on globe; IMP CONSTANTINVS AVG[VSTVS]; "Imperator, Constantine Augustus." REV : Jupiter standing left, holding Victory holding wreath on a globe, and leaning on sceptre; wreath in left field, r in right field; IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG; "Jove, saviour of the emperors." SMK in exergue; Cyzicus mint. After cleaning, sans  flas...

You know that series of books, "Chicken Soup for the [insert age range/people group here] Soul"?  Today was a Chicken Soup for the Soul sort of day.  Well, we did actually have chicken soup (with dumplings, no less) for dinner tonight.  At about 8 o'clock.  We keep very European dining hours... mostly because we can't be bothered to start cooking until 6:30 or so... but anyway. It wasn't really the soup that was chicken-soup-ish.  It was the rest of the day.  We'd had another couple inches of snow, which, this being Tennessee, necessitated the closing down of schools and meant we didn't have class.  I was okay with that.  Sleeping until 11:30 is never a problem with me.  So I got to sleep in, and then my roommate and I had a leisurely breakfast at about 1 o'clock - and then we spent the rest of the day watching Jane Austen movies and sewing.  I worked on the black suit that I'm making to wear for auditions, and Aubrey cut out quilt squ...

I rarely post this sort of thing, but one of the blogs I follow regularly is having a giveaway for a Sizzix - a contraption that cuts shapes out of fabric by means of a die (or rather, many and varied dies!)  Flowers, leaves, plain circles if that is what you want.  It doesn't just cut fabric, either - the website mentions cardstock, for instance. This isn't the sort of thing I would necessarily have discovered by myself, but Kathleen makes the cutest things with it and I think I'm won over :D  So, if you're interested,  HERE is the link  to the giveaway!

I was going to have a craft-y post for you today, but last night I decided not to set an alarm clock - I would sleep in and just let my body wake me up.  Well, it didn't decide to wake me up until 3:45 PM... so no post for you! Seriously, though, I don't know why I slept so late - I've been getting pretty solid nights of sleep, and I haven't felt  sleep-deprived!  Today though I feel like I got hit by a truck.  I'm stiff, I'm slow, I have the most wretched headache, and I feel like I could go straight back to bed and sleep for another week.  I'm not going to do it, though. It snowed this past week - a whole two inches!  Of course that threw poor little Jackson, Tennessee into a dither - they canceled school, the stores were bought out of bread and milk, and no one would drive anywhere.  This in spite of the fact that the roads were perfectly clear.  Oh, the South. I'm getting ready to make a quilt for a friend's wedding present.  I won'...

I slept until 11:30 today.  That was so nice! My last week at home for Christmas break I finally decided on a pattern for my recital dress and found fabric for it.  Deep red crepe-back satin, and a bias-cut sleeveless gown reminiscent of 1930s movie stars. Mmmmm. I have more projects than I know what to do with.  My sister's Christmas outfit... several dresses and a suit for myself (I always need more "good" clothes for performances and auditions, and I've been blessed with great deals on fabric!)... the vest I'm knitting my brother... four little sundresses for a friend... more wool socks... and some more historical sewing just for the fun of it.  I think I need to make a plan of action! My senior recital is in just over three months.  That sounds simultaneously a long time away and just around the corner.  Kind of terrifying.  And I still have a LONG way to go in learning music! I still haven't heard back from two of the grad schools I applie...

Well, it's a new year - and a new decade!  (I know the majority of the world is convinced that the decade started last year... but no - you have to count up to 10 before you finish a decade!  '11 is the real beginning.) I'm back at the apartment for Jan-term, a one-month accelerated semester, in which I'm taking a course in Roman literature.  This is so exciting!  That probably makes me a geek and a nerd of the highest order, but I love the Aeneid and I'm absolutely dancing with glee over our Roman Coin project.  The teacher actually supplied each student with a REAL Roman coin, and our task is to clean, read, and identify our coin.  Then we have to talk about it in class.  Mine is soaking in olive oil right now (this is apparently the best way to loosen the rust and dirt) and I can't wait until it's clean enough to start identifying.  I'm sure I'll post pictures and progress as the month goes on! I have a lot of craft projects ongoing - a bab...